News from the Green Swamp

Not a good picture. I took it in the last light of day when we had finished installing the deer fence for the spring garden. But the whole thing is now securely enclosed with the new sturdy fencing buried deep to keep out the armadillos, and with new colorful flags atop the fencing. My husband labored for a couple of days, digging the trenches and horsing around the rolls of heavy wire.

There are still many vegetables left over from the fall garden that didn't freeze a couple of weeks ago. Give it until the end of this month and we will plant the spring garden. I have ordered my 'starts' of many kinds of heirloom tomatoes, and I have the seeds ready to go for everything else. What a gift to have a man do this heavy work!

My brother and his wife have been visiting from California. They love staying in the little house where they spend some time reading and watching the wildlife and my brother, a musician, plays the violin. While working on the fence project I hear the sweet music over the pasture. This brother! How I love him! We are old now, but in so many ways we revert to the kids we were, best friends growing up together. He still twits and teases me in the old familiar ways, and I respond as I always did.

His wife is just the best in-law. I treasure those times once a year when we seamlessly take up from where we were the last time. We hardly ever connect between visits, but that is O.K.

The spring seems to be early this year. Many trees are flowering and I see new growth on just about everything. They are not worried about possible late freezes. I love the intense red of the swamp maples in bloom and the new flush of orange leaves, soon to be blossoms with their intense fragrance. The sand hill cranes are thinking about where to build their nest: they are flapping and dancing and throwing sticks in the air with much shouting. This year we have twin calves.

I hear that our soon-to-be twin grandchildren are doing well. I am working on my handmade gifts for them.

Life is good, economy perking up, politics still fascinating and weird. Hard to imagine in this balmy climate that people are freezing to death in Afganistan.